Osmopriming Combined with Boron-Tolerant Bacteria ( Bacillus sp. MN54) Improved the Productivity of Desi Chickpea under Rainfed and Irrigated Conditions

Noman Mehboob, Tauqeer Ahmad Yasir, Shahid Hussain, Shahid Farooq, Muhammad Naveed and Mubshar Hussain ()
Additional contact information
Noman Mehboob: Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Tauqeer Ahmad Yasir: College of Agriculture, Bahadur Sub-Campus, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Layyah 32200, Pakistan
Shahid Hussain: Department of Soil Science, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Shahid Farooq: Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Harran University, Sanliurfa 63050, Turkey
Muhammad Naveed: Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Mubshar Hussain: Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Chickpeas are rich source of protein and predominantly grown in boron (B)-deficient sandy-loam soils in Pakistan. Boron-tolerant bacteria (BTB) could tolerate higher B levels in soil and increase B availability to the plants. Field trials were conducted under irrigated (district Layyah) and rainfed (district Chakwal) conditions to evaluate the interactive effects of pre-optimized B application methods and BTB ( Bacillus sp. MN54) on the nodule’s population, grain quality, productivity, and grain-B concentration in desi chickpea during 2019–2020 and 2020–2021. Boron was applied as soil application (1 kg B ha −1 ), foliar application (0.025% B), osmopriming (0.001% B), and seed coating (1.5 g B kg −1 seed) with or without BTB inoculation. Untreated seeds receiving no B through any of the methods were regarded as control. The individual and interactive effects (up to three-way interaction of location × BTB inoculation × B application methods) of year, location, B application methods and BTB inoculation significantly altered the growth and yield-related traits of desi chickpea. The four-way interaction of year × location × BTB inoculation × B application methods was non-significant for all recorded growth and yield-related traits. Regarding individual effects, the higher values of growth and yield-related traits were noted for 2020–2021, rainfed location, BTB inoculation and B application through seed priming. Similarly, in two-way interactions 2020–2021 with rainfed location and BTB inoculation, rainfed location with BTB inoculation and osmopriming and osmopriming with BTB inoculation recorded higher values of the growth and yield-related traits. Osmopriming combined with BTB inoculation significantly improved dry matter accumulation and leaf area index in both locations. Boron application through all the methods significantly improved grain quality, yield grain B concentration. The highest grain and biological yields, and nodules’ population were recorded with osmopriming followed by soil application of B combined with BTB inoculation. The highest plant B concentration (75.05%) was recorded with foliar application of B followed by osmopriming (68.73%) combined with BTB inoculation. Moreover, the highest economic returns (USD 2068.5 ha −1 ) and benefit–cost ratio (3.7%) were recorded with osmopriming + BTB inoculation in 2020–2021 under rainfed conditions. Overall, B application through osmopriming and soil application combined with BTB inoculation could be used to increase productivity and profitability of desi chickpea, whereas foliar application is a better method to enhance grain and plant B concentration.

Keywords: osmopriming; grain yield; grain B concentration; boron-tolerant bacteria (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/8/1269/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/8/1269/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:8:p:1269-:d:893206

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().